Japan rescuers go house to house as flood toll hits 141

There have been some people rescused from their homes, but hope for finding many more people alive is fading. [AFP]

Rescue workers carried out house-to-house searches Tuesday in the increasingly unlikely hope of finding survivors after days of deadly floods and landslides that have claimed 141 lives in one of Japan's worst weather-related disasters for decades.

The record downpours that began last week have stopped and receding flood waters have laid bare the destruction that has cut a swathe through the west of the country.